Ponting Jibe: Tendulkar, Undercover Agents and Acclimatisation

A non-IPL post, for a change. Some ramblings on the recent happenings in the cricketing world.

Ricky Ponting has said that if Mark Taylor claims that he is past his best, then so is Sachin Tendulkar.

Ricky, I admire your humility and also that you bear the additional load of the Australian captaincy, but to say that Tendulkar is past his best is blasphemy.

You have just lost yourself a billion fans. I exaggerate, of course, but you get the point!

The ICC are considering recruiting undercover agents to pose as bookies and approach existing players to see how they would react.

I guess the job description would read as follows:

Ability to appear distinctly disreputable and shady in any and all surroundings.
Ability to look distinctly out of place in any cricket setting.
Ability to ingratiate oneself to any cricketer’s spouse or girlfriend.
Ability to send and receive SMSs.
Ability to appear blasé on TV channels when questioned about links to cricketers and their girlfriends.
Ability to travel well.
Ability to be inveigle oneself into all non-cricketing functions and gatherings especially private parties attended by cricketers and WAGS.
Ability to double up as cricketer’s publicists and/or managers.
Ability to be look distinctly lost when cricket is the topic of discussion.

The decision by the BCCI to send our cricketers early to South Africa to acclimatise themselves is welcome.

It makes for a change from the usual rushed, cramped schedule our cricketers usually endure.

Case in point, the rush into the T20 World Cup immediately following IPL 2010—and we all know how India fared.

It does seem that the bigwigs have listened to the coach Gary Kirsten and are doing their best to ensure that India remain at the top of the Test rankings.

This is a huge change from the recent past when ODIs and T20s were the order of the day, Test matches be damned.